Brazilian Vongole

From the depths of Florianópolis bay to São Paulo tables. In Florianópolis it’s known for at least 250 years as “Berbigão”, a popular food among the poor crowd, eaten during the starving times. Meanwhile, the Neapolitans were arriving in São Paulo, Brazil, missing their typical food such as Spaghetti alle Vongole – made with a shellfish very similar to the brazilian one – They didn’t find their vongole in the new seas, but they liked the "Berbigão" flavour, which keeping its shell on and placed on a plate of spaghetti plus a foreign name stepped up to higher levels, it became a very refined dish.  The Brazilian vongole is very easy to catch and its extraction is made by small fishers' families. Recently it joined the Ark of Taste, a Slow Food project that was launched to rediscover, catalog and promote foods which are at risk of extinction, but have productive and commercial potential and are closely linked to specific communities and cultures. Today the Ark lists more than 900 unique foods from 50 countries around the world that are threatened by industrial standardization.

Pics @ Slow Food Brasil

Skull Clutery

I must confess my passion for skull/skeleton stuff. The esthetic, symbolism and atmosphere that surround it always had a strong appeal to me. These days I found out a beautiful collection of skull spoons made by an artist called Pink Diablo (Tom Sale) and just started to search for kitchen utensils in that shape, there's a great deal of funny ones!

45 $ each at www.pinkydiablo.com

Egg cup: $38 at http://www.pushindaisies.com

Serving forks: $50 at http://www.whatonearthcatalog.com

Fluted glass: $9.99 at http://creepedout.ca

Mug: $12.49 at http://shop.advanceweb.com 

Basic Spherification

Mango Caviar by Sebastian Baquero 

Nouvelle Cuisine is Japanese

In 1960 Shizuo Tsujui opened the first school of French cuisine in Japan, which multiplied the cultural exchanges between the two countries. So much so that in 2000, Alain Senderens remarked "the nouvelle cuisine is now Japanese."

When "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" first came out 30 years ago, sushi was exotic, teriyaki was the sauce, and miso soup was for the macrobiotic crowd. No one who frequented the few Japanese restaurants in western world could have predicted what would happen in over three decades.

The late Shizuo Tsuji mastered Japanese cuisine, then French. He started the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka in 1960 to train chefs, and it remains one of the well-respected cooking schools in Japan. He wrote this encyclopedic book to share the "essence and spirit" of his native cuisine. In this 25th anniversary edition, the content is the same as the original. There is a foreword by the late food writer M.F.K. Fisher and a preface by Tsuji, both of which are from the first volume, as well as a new foreword by Gourmet magazine's Ruth Reichl, and a preface by Tsuji's son, Yoshiki.

The 25th Anniversary edition celebrates Tsuji's classic work. Beautifully illustrated with eight pages of new color photos and over 500 drawings, and containing 230 traditional recipes as well as detailed explanations of ingredients, kitchen utensils, techniques and cultural aspects of Japanese cuisine, this edition continues the Tsuji legacy of bringing the Japanese kitchen within the reach of Western cooks.

The Hungry Girls' Cookbook

The Hungry Girls' Cookbooks are more like works of art than regular recipe books. Each edition is lined with cloth and hand-sewn, and inside you’ll find exciting dishes for the home cook. A crisp green bean, breadcrumb and pistachio salad, a soba noodle soup for a simple and satisfying weeknight meal, a delicious lemon poppy seed cake, and plenty more. These unique books are the work of three friends – Rachel Pitts, Leah Holscher and Katherine Bird – who have combined their love of food to create the recipes, photography and illustrations.

Trusty, healthy comfort food recipes, also tips for those days when your fridge is only offering sparse odds and ends, vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes and lots of useful pieces of culinary advice. Many of the recipes are inspired by the season and by produce from the house garden.

www.hungrygirls.com.au